Dripping, not leaking keel question

[Dubo]

Hello,
The saga of prepping my keel on a 87 31' Hunter continues. I stripped the paint off the bottom of the keel and the next day noticed rusty droplets. The attach pic shows the bottom of the keel. It is about 10" wide. Is there a drain hole I need to drill out or is the keel crying because I stripped the paint? I am not sure how long the keel will or should be dripping nor the reason. I assume there has been some rusting based on age but the drips puzzle me. Any explanation and course of action would be a help. Do I apply heat to accelerate the moisture exiting or let it continue to drip or just ignore it? Will this take decades to dry out? My wife says to close my eyes and just paint it. I REALLY do not want to entrap water under the paint.

Thank you,
JD

 

[kloudie1]

JD, ya probably have water trapped between the coating and the cast iron keel that is causing the problem.. Ya need to blast or grind/sand the coating to bare iron and then fair the pits with an epoxy faring material then cover it with a coating like an epoxy barrier coat or a coal tar epoxy.. If you just coat it as is, the existing coating will soon unstick from the iron and peel off.. after the last coat of barrier is almost dry (touch dry), piant it with yourr first coat of bottom paint.. the barrier should last many years..